This question does not concern DVD ripping -- assume I have done that job on a non-protected disc, and obtained either the folders or some .iso file (I prefer the latter).

What I want:- To extract the audio part to an audio file format (say, FLAC with cue sheets or tagged FLAC) ...- ... such that it matches the chapter indexing as if each chapter were a track on a CDDA- ... and tagged with chapter name as track title.

IOW, I want the audio (the music, in my case) on a DVD treated to appear in my files as if I had ripped a CD with the same content, and with as much metadata as I can get.

Any application? I have browsed doom9, but it appears to me the focus there is to get the discs ripped, which is not my issue.

I don't know of any one program that can do all of that... I think you'll have to use a handful of tools, develop a procedure that works for you, and do some hands-on "work"...

Corel Video Studio allows you to "import" (rip) individual chapters, one at a time, but it takes a couple of extra steps to save the audio-only. It doesn't save in FLAC, but you can save-as WAV. And, you don't get any tags or metadata. (Video Studio can import directly from an unencrypted DVD or from DVD folders (AUDIO_TS & VIDEO_TS) on a hard drive. It can't import from an ISO file.)

You can find "DVD audio rippers". I don't know if any of these can rip by-chapter, but you might want to try a search and try-out some different programs.

I've only done this with live concert DVDs and I find it easier to extract the audio to one single wave file, and then use an audio editor to split-up the songs. The chapter makers aren't always where I want them, and I frequently edit the crowd noise and/or talking betwen songs, etc.

Editing can take some time, depending on how much actual editing you're doing, but manually tagging 10 or 20 songs only takes a few minutes...

My procedure is:1. Import the DVD into Video Studio2. Save the audio as a single WAV file.

3. Open the file with GoldWave.4. Edit & save the individual tracks in WAV, FLAC, or MP3. (I usually save a full-concert file too.)

5. Open the files in Winamp and use Winamp's built-in tagger to manually fill-in the artist/title/track, etc. info.

NOTE - I'm not saying this is the best way or the best software... It's just how I would do it with the software I happen to have and use. (And, I think it could all be done with freeware.)

It sounds like an ideal way to extract an exact audio copy from an unencrypted dvd movie, but do you - or anyone - know if it's possible to do the same with free software?

I'll only use it for one dvd and then probably never again, paid software seems like overkill for my purpose. Something like EAC but for dvds would be ideal. The copy must be lossless, it's a school play and the audio is bad enough as it is.

SUPER can extract the audio to a WAV file. (Don't get fooled by that ads on SUPER's website... Make sure you are downloading SUPER.)

You can edit audio files with Audacity. You might be able to skip the above software and directly open the MPEG-2 audio-video file (or DVD/VOB files) after installing the optional FFmpeg Import/Export Library for Audacity.

P.S.Another tool that might be useful is VLC. I haven't tried this... I don't know if it can create an audio-only file or if it's lossless, but it can Convert DVDs to other formats.